Thursday, September 11, 2014

On
Wednesday, August 9th, I stood in the audience of the William J.
Harrison Education Center, beaming with pride as the Sweet Potato Project (SPP)
students kicked off their end-of-summer event. One thought kept reverberating
in my head as the teens talked, sang and spit rhymes about their new
friendships, planting produce, making products, starting their own businesses
and reclaiming communities:

End of summer celebratory event

“They
get it!”

SPP
has received the support, time and commitment from people of all races and faiths-whites, blacks, Christians, Jews, Muslims and more. We “get
it,” too, because our students have cautiously allowed us into their fragile
worlds. They've granted us the privilege to see their potential, fears and frustrations.
We see how they've become a tighter, more conscientious and informed clique and the lessons we've shared this summer seems to have taken
root.

LaTanya
Reeves of Enterprise Bank & Trust oversaw our financial literacy courses.
She arranged to have Tyler Sondag from SLU’s John Cook’s School of Business give
the kids a basic course in business plan development. To my surprise, within a
week, most got the essentials and a few came up with rudimentary but bold plans.

LaTanya Reeves

Tyler Sondag's Business Plan Class

Edie
Adams, 18, was excited to share her idea about creating an inner-city real
estate company that focused solely on securing vacant city lots that
would be sold to individuals interested in redeveloping the land for farming
and housing developments.

Michael Smith reading an ode to Mike Brown in class

Then there’s quirky but lovable
Mike, 18, a kid who researched food companies to draft his business plan for
the Sweet Potato Project. I won’t disclose 17-year-old Tytianna’s plan but I
will say that this shy, withdrawn young lady came up with an idea that could
very well revolutionize the multibillion dollar cell phone industry.

Three days after our celebratory event, an unarmed teen, Michael Brown, 18, was shot
dead by a Ferguson police officer and all hell broke loose. Unlike the media’s salacious focus on “looting and rioting” young
people, we saw the catastrophic incident through the eyes of our students.

Raymond Blanton

Raymond, 17, is a student who had no fear expressing unpopular opinions
in class on topics such as sexual promiscuity, black-on-black crime, religion
and respect for the law. This conservative-leaning kid exhibited disgust and
hopelessness with “the system” after the Mike Brown shooting.

There are those who cling to the
images of stealing or bottle-throwing black youth to justify the militarized assault on
young protesters. I wish these callous commentators could meet Travion-a tall,
dark-skinned, deadlock-wearing 19-year-old who has earned praise from our
instructors and the business-owners we visited this summer. My heart
dropped the day Travion told me:

“Mr. Brown, you’re the first
person to tell me I’m smart.”

Travion Johnson

About the third week of classes, Travion
and his brothers, Antonio and Arthur became rather sullen. They were too playful,
too distracted and sometimes disruptive. One day, one of our instructors, Muhammad Raqib,
called the brothers out on their behavior.

He elaborated, telling the
class how he and his brothers attended a party and, in the midst of the festivities,
their uncle was stabbed in the neck by a female acquaintance. Antonio spoke of the
helplessness he felt as he tried applied a towel to a wound that eventually
robbed them of their beloved uncle.

You see, our kids grapple with death;
navigate poverty, gangs, drug-related violence, public ridicule and racial mistrust.
Yet, they remain hopeful, creative and open to the notion that they can make positive
change in their neighborhoods.

DeVon "Lil' Usher" Hemphill

As I listened to the numerous "Mike Brown" songs that's been released, I thought of Devon, a kid we nicknamed “Lil’
Usher” because of his resemblance to the entertainer. Devon
is just as comfortable crafting a beat as he is articulating ways to attract
more youth and create jobs for his peers and siblings.

Marquita Williams

We've learned that "respect" is a big thing among our students. Marquita,
20, has been with us since 2012. She has the stage presence and media skill to
articulate our mission on camera or in front of small and large groups. She has
talent and value but when Marquita feels disrespected, she’ll dig her heels in
and refuse to budge until she feels her voice has been heard.

Meet Nadia, 19-a fast-talking dreamer anxious to tackle the world. In class last year, Nadia talked about “the
jump-out-boys”-plainclothes policemen, she said, who constantly harass her and her friends as they walk the streets or stand in
front of their homes. The officers, she added, purposely try to provoke the
youth with insults and racial expletives while rummaging through their pockets.

Nadia Epps

Thankfully, police brutality has been an ongoing discussion in our classes. To address the fears of our students, we've had
high-ranking officers talk with them about effective ways to interact and resolve issues with police. It saddens me that most of what we've told
them has been betrayed by police who see them as angry, violent stereotypes. We've worked with enough kids over the past three years to know that they’re no
different from the young protesters in Ferguson.

The
Sweet Potato Project’s basic mission is to bring “community” back to
communities. We recruit “at-risk” teens, teach them how to grow food, harvest
their yield, create food-based products and learn to be entrepreneurs in their
own neighborhoods. We remind our youth that it is their responsibility to create positive change that will provide
opportunities for their siblings, peers and parents.

However,
telling them this is not enough. We have to build
fertile environments for the seeds we’ve planted to flourish. Imagine teens and adults growing food together in St. Louis
and in municipalities like Ferguson. Imagine these young, “urban pioneers”
working side-by-side with community stakeholders building communities where
everyone is personally, socially and economically vested.

Some of the students on last day of summer classes

I can go on and on about our other students-Tabby, Zavier, Nautica. Ranesha, Marissa, Dashia, Darryeon, Daja, Keon, Andivar, Maurice and the twins, Sherry & Terry. These are the faces I saw as police gassed, arrested and shot rubber bullets at protesters.

I’m
always concerned about the period between the end of summer classes and the
beginning our fall, winter and spring program. Raising money is a 24/7 challenge
and I find myself fearing that we will lose kids within the fund-raising gap.

The Mike Brown travesty has
convinced us at SPP that we’re on the right path. Getting our kids back to
class, tending our gardens, harvesting and producing sweet potato-based products
is our immediate directive. With your help perhaps we can go further. Perhaps
we can keep our promise and help build a generation of youth who will be the
stewards of a bold, new vision to reclaim and revitalize North St. Louis.

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About Me

Born and raised in St. Louis. In 1987 started Take Five Magazine, a pro-active, community-based, investigative publication. Operated for 15 years. Hired as Metro columnist with the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 2002. Brought Bill Cosby to town, debated Bill O'Reilly and wrote a column that saved a baby's life. After leaving the Post-Dispatch in 2009, started working with SmileyBooks as a consultant and writing contributor. Founded When We Dream Together, a nonprofit dedicated to revitalizing urban communities in 2011. In 2012, began "The Sweet Potato Project," a summer program aimed at teaching "at-risk" youth entrepreneurial skills. Students planted sweet potatoes that they turned into a viable, marketable product-a sweet potato cookie. Currently running both nonprofits, working as a freelance writer and consultant and about to enter the self-publishing arena.

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